Winter's one-month birthday passed in Raleigh without an icicle, a snowflake or a day below freezing - great news if you sell popsicles, bad luck if you sell sleds.
Thirty days past the solstice, the Triangle lounged in 60-degree weather, and the ratio of people enjoying a beer outdoors at The Raleigh Times to those ice-skating on the Fayetteville Street rink can hover around 20 to 1.
By this point last winter, Raleigh had already endured three snows and an ice storm. Kids went stir crazy with schools closed. Parents made sleds out of crushed cardboard boxes.
But this year? The rickshaw drivers downtown are still wearing shorts. Confused daffodils are starting to sprout.
Strange weather always creates winners and losers. Thunderstorms smile on the umbrella vendor and bankrupt the lemonade stand. Along those lines, Raleigh's anti-winter is drawing an equal number of raves and rants, creating simultaneous boom and bust.
"Santa Claus bought the only sled we sold," said Henry Burke, owner of Burke Brothers Hardware. "Haven't sold any salt."
This winter has been remarkably tame, especially in regions accustomed to a three-month tussle with freezing temperatures, snow, sleet and ice. In the Northeast, only four Decembers in the past 117 years have been warmer, according to the National Weather Service.
In Raleigh, December saw two new records broken and one tied for minimum temperature. One of those, 61 degrees on Dec. 22, shattered the old mark that had stood since 1956.
The winter of discontent never showed up in the Triangle, and likely won't before spring, thanks to the cooler-than-normal Pacific Ocean around the equator - a phenomenon known as La Niña, or the little girl.
When the Pacific cools, the Southeast warms. Cold there; balmy here. And vice versa. Happens about three out of every 10 winters.
"No surprises here," said Nick Petro of the National Weather Service in Raleigh. "This is not unusual for LaNiña."
So while Raleigh basks, the coat racks at Macy's are bulging out into the aisles, its winter warmers marked down 60 percent.
This is a dreadful time to peddle warmth.
A sale at winter's end
A sign at the entrance to Sears at Crabtree Valley Mall announces, "Winter's End Sale," and though the ad refers to a sale on Land's End products, you can interpret it more than one way. Downparkas with faux fur hoods are going for 30 percent off the markdown price. On the concourse just outside, a stand is selling flip-flops.
"Stores can't get rid of the outerwear fast enough," said Scott A. Bernhardt, chief operating officer of Planalytics Inc., a research firm that advises stores.
In a typical year, Tommy Babb of Fuquay-Varina might earn as much as $4,000 plowing snow out of parking lots. But this January, the plow sits idle and unloved.
"No snow to plow," he said. "No salt to put down."
But sunny skies also bring fortune, even in January.
The Locopops frozen treat store on Hillsborough Street opened two weeks earlier than normal thanks to warmer weather. And though weekday hours stretch only from 3:30 in the afternoon to 7 in the evening, the cashiers still see 15 to 20 families per day - a midwinter rarity.
Advice for gardeners
Gardeners are smiling, too. At Logan Trading Co. in Raleigh, they're getting the go-ahead to plant seeds normally slated for February, provided they give the soil some extra care.
"People are getting itchy, and we tell them go ahead and try," said Karen Scheslinger, who works there.
"I wouldn't go crazy and fertilize your trees and shrubs," she said, "but I might fertilize a fescue lawn."
Sure, it's early. Sure, spring doesn't officially arrive till late March. Sure, the quickest way to bring a blizzard is to plan a picnic.
But anyone who has passed a decade's worth of winters in the Triangle knows that winter always starts gasping after Valentine's Day, and usually sputters out by February's end.
Maybe it's sparing us this year, and with a note of pity for the shovel salesman and the snowman-deprived kid, we can be grateful.
This article contains material from The Associated Press.
